Labored breathing

[Seahorse Rex]

I got 3 erectus seahorses last Saturday and put them in my 45 gallon tank. They’ve been doing very well and I fed them live brine for the first time 4 hours ago. Now the most social one seems to be breathing very hard and has turned very dark brown (he’s normally brownish orange). Water parameters are good (72 degrees) , tank cycled for 9 weeks, has clean up crew of turbo, trochus and nessarius snails. Both other seahorses seem to be doing well. The sickly one ate very well this morning and like crazy with brine. I have a HOB filter, a slimmer rated for 200 gal, and a 240 gph Powerhead. I’m very new to seahorses, but have maintaned a mixed reef for awhile with great success. I did a 10% water change yesterday. What can I do?

 

[Brew12]

Unfortunately, I know nothing about seahorses.

Anyone in #reefsquad able to help or know of someone who can?

 

[Crabs McJones]

@SeahorseKeeper

 

[dbl]

I will double tag @SeahorseKeeper as I know nothing about seahorses.

 

[4FordFamily]

I got 3 erectus seahorses last Saturday and put them in my 45 gallon tank. They’ve been doing very well and I fed them live brine for the first time 4 hours ago. Now the most social one seems to be breathing very hard and has turned very dark brown (he’s normally brownish orange). Water parameters are good (72 degrees) , tank cycled for 9 weeks, has clean up crew of turbo, trochus and nessarius snails. Both other seahorses seem to be doing well. The sickly one ate very well this morning and like crazy with brine. I have a HOB filter, a slimmer rated for 200 gal, and a 240 gph Powerhead. I’m very new to seahorses, but have maintaned a mixed reef for awhile with great success. I did a 10% water change yesterday. What can I do?

9 weeks doesn’t necessarily mean you’re cycled, especially for seahorses. What are your nitrate, nitrite, and ammonia results?

Seahorses don’t appreciate heavy flow, they can exhaust from too much flow I recommend you find a way to make the water less turbulent and see if that helps for a day or two until the experts chime in.

Did you temp and salinity match your water for the water change? They may be sensitive to temp and salinity fluctuations like many other fish, I imagine they may be even more so.

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

Can you post your water parameters? Also, I would like to see some pics of the tank and the seahorse. These things can help give some clues as to what is happening.

 

[vlangel]

How are your seahorses doing? I agree with seahorse keeper that more info would be helpful in correctly assessing the situation.

 

[rayjay]

I'm more into the don't wait, do something category. When I find a seahorse that appears in distress, especially if I don't know the reason, I transfer it to a hospital tank with new water matching temperature, pH and specific gravity, making sure it has heavy open ended airline aeration.
IME, heavy breathing is usually due to a stress on the seahorse which can be caused by another tank mate if any, or by a parasite infestation, or a disease that is taking hold and that one sometimes is the hardest one to pin down.
I agree that we need more information about conditions and that it's reasonable to assume the cycle was not complete, or, insufficient for the loading of 3 seahorses and the amount of food you are providing.
If it was my seahorse and I couldn't determine the cause of the problem, AND, if the seahorse was NOT improving, I usually start with a freshwater dip to see if there IS an infestation of parasites, and, if NOT, especially if getting worse, then I would usually do a complete cycle of an antibacterial agent like Furan II that I like to couple with tri-sulpha.
Unfortunately though, it's also possible that an internal situation like liver disease or some other organ problem is present and you are unable to determine this for sure unless edema becomes evident. That would require used of prescription drug Diamox.
If there is a water or food causative for this problem, remember that this one may have a weaker immune system and is only the first to be affected by it and it's possible the others may also succumb to the same problem. If their systems are sufficiently better, they may not come down with any symptoms at all.
If after placing in the hospital tank with the new water, it improves in a day or so, then I'd for sure be looking at potential water problems first, but also, being sure my food wasn't harbouring any nasty bacteria.
When feeding live brine shrimp, at whatever size, they should first be sterilized somewhat by adding hydrogen peroxide to the enrichment water just before feeding them to the seahorses and then rising well. (assuming you ARE doing the recommended enrichment with a high DHA included product)
In the aquaculture industry, artemia cysts (brine shrimp) are WELL know to contain a lot of nasty bacteria that if not properly treated will still be with the artemia when being fed to fish. Seahorses have the GREATEST susceptibility to bacterial problems of any fish I've ever kept over many decades.
What I DON'T agree with is the notion that you need LOW FLOW in a seahorse tank.
That WAS the recommendation 15-16 yrs ago when I started, but it changed within my first few years of keeping to state that it is preferred to have sufficient water motion to be able to keep detritus in the water column long enough for the mechanical filtration to pick it up. (and of course, clean that filtration every 3-4 days BEFORE any serious decay set's in)
I believe most seahorse keepers now are at LEAST in the 10X flow with a good number at 20X+-. The main criteria is to have hitching available in areas of low, medium and high flow so they can choose at any time just what they prefer, and to have no blast that can propel them against anything to damage them.
You will likely find that many seahorses actually seem to "play" in the strong output, returning many times to "go with the flow".

 

[Seahorse Rex]

Ammonia:0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate: 5
PH:8.2
Salinity: 1.024

Brine was treated before feeding and I always rinse my mysis.

My lights just started the “Dawn” process so pictures aren’t happening quite yet. There are certainly lower flow areas of the tank, but I don’t believe the flow is the issue. There is surface agitation, but the flow is nothing like that of my reef for sure. When I checked this morning his breathing does seem to have slowed. I’ll be able to check more when the lights are up. I’m a little discouraged to hear my tank may have not cycled completely! I trust my LFS and he keeps a seahorse tank as well so I was feeling pretty positive about it! After the 9 week cycle I added a clown goby (and cuc) for two weeks before bringing the seahorses home. I did relocate the goby to my reef before bringing them home to avoid any undue stress.

I appreciate all the feedback! I do tend to get a bit anxious when adding new fish so that never helps the situation.

 

[rayjay]

Well, ammonia would be the first thing you would see if the tank was NOT cycled, or not able to handle the bioload after seahorses were added. I would rule this out unless more readings in the next 24-48 hrs show any ammonia.
Next I would do a freshwater dip to check for parasitic infestation. You will ALWAYS have parasites present, just like nasty bacteria is always present, but if either get out of control then they can get to plague proportions fairly quickly.
If there is not much thrashing when placed in the FWD, and if you can't see a lot of the exploded parasites in the water after removing the seahorse, then I would very closely monitor the seahorse to see if the problem stays the same, gets worse, or improves. Sometimes just being in new water can make an improvement occur, especially if the problem is bacterial in nature, or, an internal organ disease. If so I then reassess my water change/husbandry protocol, especially looking for uneaten food that is perhaps out of sight, trapped in decor or behind/between rocks, not forgetting the mechanical filter media where trapped detritus decays to provide food and bedding for the nasties.
If NO improvement or conditions worsen then I'd start the antibiotic treatment then.
I personally don't put any other fish in with my seahorse tanks, and make sure any I purchase are NOT coming from a fish system with multiple tanks that contain OTHER fish.
There is a fair number of seahorses that do succumb to exposure to parasites that come from other fish when the seahorse hasn't grow up with exposure to those parasites. It's definitely not as big a problem as bacteria is, and many keepers have had NO bad experiences when doing so.
I had problems early on so after that, I choose to go species only tank and don't even mix seahorses from different sources even though they could be the same species.

 

[Seahorse Rex]

Thank you all so much! I just fed and he’s eating and behaving normally. I’ll up my plan to three 12% water changes per week for the foreseeable future in case cycling wasn’t complete. It was most likely just me getting overly anxious.

 

[rayjay]

I'm glad to hear everything appears to be OK now.
While it's possible you were overreacting, it's also possible the seahorse itself was able to recover from an unknown ailment, just like people who often experience a short term illness of hours to a day and then are OK afterwards.
I think the increased water changes are a good move but I don't believe it will solve any "incomplete cycle" occurrence if any.
In my case, if I was EVER to experience ammonia from incomplete cycle or any other reason, I would immediately add ClorAm-X to bind the ammonia so it won't do any damage to the seahorses.
The increased water changes coupled with increased husbandry to keep out decaying detritus and uneaten foods are IMO, the number one best thing you can do for seahorses.